Social Darwinism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7077949 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bernd Weiler (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | OTHER |
| Venue | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss142 |
| OpenAlex | W4243894516 |
| ISBN | 9781405165518 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
Social Darwinism, a highly controversial and protean term, refers to the application of concepts and ideas to the social world which are allegedly derived from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Despite the fact that the so‐called founding fathers of sociology tried to establish the autonomy of their discipline, the often unconscious reliance upon biological concepts and the interpretation of the social order as the outcome of a natural process were pervasive traits of late nineteenth and early twentieth‐century social science. The term Social Darwinism first came into usage in the late 1870s and early 1880s and is, in its classic phase, commonly – and as some would immediately object wrongly – associated with such diverse theorists as Spencer and Bagehot in Great Britain, Sumner and Fiske in the US, Gumplowicz and Ratzenhofer in Austria, Lombroso, Ferri, and Niceforo in Italy, Broca, Topinard, and Lapouge in France, and Hellwald, Woltmann, Ploetz, and Ammon in Germany
Autonomy · Darwin (ADL · Darwinism · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Object (grammar · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Social Darwinism · Social order · Sociology · Unconscious mind · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Economic Theory and Institutions · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Law · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |